What is BRIC?

The University of Akron Biomimicry Research and Innovation Center (BRIC) is a center dedicated to the advancement of innovation inspired by nature. Together with our regional partners, we are building an internationally recognized center for biomimicry research, design, teaching and training.

The work of BRIC is to align the creative ideas of scientists, engineers, artists, and entrepreneurs to catalyze invention. By partnering our existing biomimetic research expertise with the Great Lakes Biomimicry business leaders, the BRIC paradigm lays the foundation for sustainable economic and educational innovation powered by nature-inspired technologies.

Meet the Principal Investigators

Meet the Biomimicry Fellows

Why BRIC?

A convergence of activities has created a once-in-a-generation opportunity for UA and its regional partners to assume a position of global leadership around the paradigm of biomimicry. Biomimicry is, as Janine Benyus of the Biomimicry Institute has observed, “innovation inspired by nature.”

Although biomimicry has penetrated around the world into the popular media (Popular Science 2011), R&D labs (e.g., Qualcomm, Sharklet, WhalePower), and informal education venues (e.g., museums, workshops, zoos), the paradigm is currently an academic orphan (Vincent et al. 2006). We have a unique opportunity to take a leadership role in defining an emerging discipline, promising innovative solutions to not only our most intractable problems but also many new challenges we will face over the next century.